CEAA paid the global public relations firm $331,844 to plan and hold in-person and online consultations on how Ottawa should change the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said in an order paper question last month.

Hill & Knowlton created a proposed agenda for the public consultations that were held in 21 cities this past fall and provided advice and a mock-up for an interactive website Canadians used to submit their views.

The contract, which began last June and ends in March, is the only time in the last five years the agency has turned to a private company for help in running a public engagement program, a spokesperson said.

“The contractor was hired to provide these services due to their expertise in designing broad scope engagement activities with Canadians,” wrote agency spokesperson Toban Morrison in an email.

Hill & Knowlton is deepening its reach in the public participation business in Canada after establishing itself as one of the world’s largest public and government relations companies.

In 2012, Hill & Knowlton acquired Ottawa-based Ascentum Inc., a company specializing in stakeholder engagement for government, private and non-profit groups. The acquisition gave Hill & Knowlton a foothold to take on public consultation contracts from the federal government.

In January 2016, Hill & Knowlton bought Acertys, based in Montreal, giving it access to the same sector in Quebec.

“Public engagement represents a growing part of H+K’s business,” wrote spokesperson James Kenney in an email. “We continue to invest in this area, both in technology and people, including the acquisition in 2016 of Quebec-base Acertys, because we believe that consultation collaboration and co-creation will be driving the communication industry in the years to come.”

The federal Liberals came to power in October 2015 with a wide-ranging mandate to reform legislation brought in by the Harper government and spent the last year holding consultations in the run-up to introducing their own changes.

Currently, there are 74 public consultations in effect across the federal government.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency hired a four-person expert panel to review its mandate legislation in August. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act determines how environmental impacts are considered in large projects like pipelines, mines and nuclear facilities.

The panel is expected to deliver a recommendation report to McKenna by March 31.

Hill & Knowlton was not involved in considering legal issues that may arise in consulting indigenous communities stemming from the Crown’s duty to consult and accommodate, said Morrison, the agency spokesperson.

The review is being performed in conjunction with an expert panel’s review of how to modernize National Energy Board and reviews by House of Commons committees on the Fisheries Act and the Navigable Waters Protection Act.